Sir, – Pat Leahy mentions four possibilities for the formation of a new government – a minority Fine Gael government, a Fianna Fáil version, a grand coalition or another election, ("First Dáil meeting was predictable – but what happens next?", March 11th).
A fifth option would be a Swiss-style all-party government – theirs, a seven-person executive of five parties – which could work in conflict zones such as Northern Ireland, Syria and Ukraine.
A minority administration seeks majority support for each piece of legislation, sometimes with “these” TDs, sometimes “those”. It can and does work, as quite often in Denmark, or as with the first SNP government in Edinburgh, but could not function successfully in Damascus.
Like any single-party majority rule, a majority coalition is probably the most adversarial – the government often just ignoring the opposition. This was part of the problem in both Belfast and Kiev.
In the fifth option, the most consensual, TDs would engage "meaningfully with each other," as your columnist Noel Whelan argues ("FG may have to bite bullet on Micheál Martin", March 11th).
Accordingly, the entire Dáil should elect the executive by a PR matrix, each TD choosing in order of preference those whom he or she wants to be in government, and the particular ministry in which he or she wishes each nominee to serve.
The outcome would be an all-party coalition, a government of national unity.
This could be the key to power-sharing in any conflict zone.
– Yours, etc,
PETER EMERSON
Director,
The de Borda Institute,
Belfast.
Sir, – There is an almost astrological premise underlying much of the commentary about the obligations on the two larger parties to “accept the will of the people” and enter government.
No one voted for a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael coalition.
An unprecedented number of people voted for single-issue or purely local TDs who seem to get a free pass when it comes to providing a national government.
What if this trend continues and we have a majority of such TDs in the not so distant future?
Will the commentariat opine that the will of the people is to have no government at all?
– Yours, etc,
DR KEVIN RYAN
Limerick.
Sir, – Your readers must by now be well overdosed on pithy, witty letters from elderly windbags, nevertheless I will press on.
The shenanigans in Leinster House pale to incandescent enlightenment beside the change of government processes that have to be endured by the citizens of Libya and Syria.
How lucky our stars!
– Yours, etc,
JOSEPH BYRNE,
Ennis,
Co Clare.
Sir, – Will the next government last longer than the name of the present Dáil suggests: the 30-second Dáil?
– Yours, etc,
ELLEN O’CONNELL (11)
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – May I remind Fianna Fáil that Seán Lemass once said you don’t have to love someone to work with them.
– Yours, etc,
TONY WOOL
Ballincollig,
Co Cork.
Sir, – Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil need to tie the knot and be done with it.
Fianna Fáil and Micheál Martin’s act of being the reluctant bride is getting tired. It is time to regularise this union and get down to the business of tackling the growing issues of health, homelessness, etc.
The honeymoon period for the 32nd Dáil is coming to a rapid end.
– Is mise le meas,
KILLIAN BRENNAN
Malahide Road,
Dublin 17.
Sir, – If the State’s two main parties do not wish to work with each other for the benefit of the people who elected them, then I have a simple solution.
Would they kindly step aside and call another election, in which neither party will put up candidates.
There seem to be a lot of new parties who would love to be in government to sort out the current mess.
– Yours, etc,
CONOR O’SHEA,
Drogheda.
Sir,– Last week, some TDs voted against each of the four candidates who had been proposed for the office of Taoiseach.
In future votes, this should be unacceptable. Every TD should either support a candidate or abstain.
– Yours, etc,
TOM SHEEDY
Malahide,
Co Dublin.